Jack Wilshere and Kevin Pietersen involved in Twitter war over England nationality

Jack Wilshere was in the middle of a controversy after his comments on ‘foreign’ players playing for England

England footballer Jack Wilshere and cricket team’s batting mainstay, Kevin Pietersen were involved in a war of words on Twitter on Tuesday after the midfielder raised the issue of a sportsperson’s origins being important when playing for the national team.

The controversy broke out earlier on Tuesday when speaking in a press conference ahead of England’s World Cup qualifier against Montenegro, he responded to a question whether England should seek Manchester United’s latest 18-year-old sensation Adnan Januzaj, who was brought up in Belgium and is qualified to play for many European countries, and what his view was about playing with ‘foreign players’ in the England national team.

Wilshere replied, “No, for me if you are English you are English and you play for England. The only people who should play for England are English people. If you live in England for five years it doesn’t make you English. You shouldn’t play … it doesn’t mean you can play for a country. If I went to Spain and lived there for five years I am not going to play for Spain.”

South Africa-born cricketer Kevin Pietersen left his native country for England after protesting against the country’s quota system. Pietersen decided to clarify Wilshere’s remarks on Twitter:

.@JackWilshere -interested to know how you define foreigner…? Would that include me, Strauss, Trott, Prior, Justin Rose, Froome, Mo Farah?